Bring me to Higher Levels
by Vergina-spva
Summary: When the interesting elevator repairman is gone a little too soon, Robin might have to take more drastic measures to meet him again. Modern AU, Franky/Robin. Written for the Share-the-love Month.


_My part for the share-the-love month on tumblr, organized by the wonderful Aerle and MyLadyDay._

 _I originally had planned to make this at least twice as long, so maybe,_ if _I have time and inspiration there might be a sequel one day._

 _Please enjoy~!_

* * *

Robin stepped out of the elevator, onto the floor where her office was. However, that floor was about fifteen inches higher than the elevator floor. It had stopped a little too early. Again.

She cast a slightly annoyed look at the counter right next to elevator. "Could you please make sure this elevator gets fixed sometime soon?" she asked the man behind the counter. "Someone could trip and break their neck like this. Or fall into the elevator shaft and disappear into that deep black hole, never to be found again."

Robin smiled at him as the man grabbed the phone on his desk, a horrified expression on his face. "I'll pass the message."

"Thank you." She continued walking towards her corner of the office, greeting her colleague, Kaku, on her way. She enjoyed her job at the law firm, but that elevator was getting on her nerves. It had issues like this for almost two weeks already.

As she sat down and turned on her computer, she listened carefully to what the man behind the counter was saying. "…very dangerous. Someone almost fell into the shaft because of this." Robin smiled as she opened her email. Well, someone _could have_.

"It's really important that it gets fixed as soon as possible," the man concluded.

Robin knew many men – and women for that matter – were a little intimidated by her, and apparently she had a dark sense of humor, though she thought that was a bit of an exaggeration – she wasn't joking, most of the time. But as long as that helped to get things done, Robin wasn't one to feel bad about that.

* * *

It had been urgent, they said. So, Franky had made some room in his schedule to fix the damn elevator. But when he arrived, it appeared the problem hadn't been _that_ urgent. The elevator still went up and down, and the doors still opened perfectly. Still, it was quite obvious the settings weren't right and the elevator stopped too early, a bit more with every level it went up.

That didn't mean Franky particularly liked getting called out to a posh building like this, where only people in suits worked. The fact that they described this tiny problem as urgent, only added to the image Franky already had of people like that. They usually only looked down on people with jobs like his.

He went up to the upper level of the building, and put the elevator to a stop there. He knew level 15, the highest, was occupied by a law firm, and lawyers usually were the worst. Except for bankers, maybe. So he wasn't too happy when he had to work there with the elevator doors open, but it was really the only option he had. Besides, it shouldn't take too long to fix this.

"Are you going to save my colleagues from breaking their neck?" He heard a woman's voice.

He rolled his eyes, before looking up. But every comment he had wanted to make, got lost halfway his throat. Before him stood the most gorgeous woman he'd ever seen. Deep black hair tight in a knot on her head contrasted the light blue eyes that seemed to look right into his soul. She wore a tight, black skirt, a white blouse, and high heels, that made her even longer than she already was. Not that that was a problem for Franky, since he was rather tall himself.

"I think it would be super dumb to break your neck over such a small difference." Franky was surprised to see her chuckle, instead of taking his comment as offending. "But yeah, I'm here to fix it." He wanted to continue working, but found that he couldn't tear his eyes away from the woman. When he realized he had been quietly staring for an awkwardly long time, he quickly added, "But you'll have to take the stairs if you want to go down for now."

The woman smiled at him. "That's okay, I just came from downstairs." She slowly started to move towards her working place again. "But I'm glad it's getting fixed."

Franky was aware that it was incredibly unprofessional, the way he stared after her as she walked away, her hips swinging hypnotically. He just couldn't help himself.

* * *

From the spot behind her desk, Robin just couldn't see the elevator very well, so every now and then, when work allowed it, she stretched her neck out too look at the blue haired man in shorts and open shirt, that was working hard to fix their elevator. She thought he was pretty interesting, the way he had spoken to her, not really seeming to care what she thought of him, yet still obviously impressed by her appearance. And the tone in his voice, the way he had put a little more emphasis on the word 'super' than necessary, some might find it a bit odd or silly, but it made Robin smile. It showed the man had a lot of passion in him. One thing was for sure; he was obviously different from the boring men she usually met during her working hours.

After a while of being concentrated on her job, she decided to take a short walk to get some coffee, for which she had to walk past the elevator. Well, not necessarily, but it wasn't that far off her path. However, her smile disappeared when she noticed the elevator doors were closed, and the light next to it was on again. As the mechanic wasn't anywhere to be seen anymore either, Robin walked towards her coworker behind the counter. "Is the elevator already fixed?"

The man looked up. "Yeah, he left ten minutes ago, or so. He said it would be working fine again."

Robin had to admit to herself that she was a little disappointed. Not that she had expected the man to say goodbye or anything, but she hadn't even caught his name. She leaned on the counter for a bit, nonchalantly trying to see if she could find any info on the mechanic between the papers her coworker had in front of him. "Did he even mention his name?" she asked him.

The man shrugged. "He did, but I honestly can't remember what it was anymore." He tried to think some more. "Maybe Tom or Frank or something? Well, it doesn't really matter. If he did his work right, we won't be seeing him again, any time soon."

"Hmm," Robin just said, as she continued her way towards the coffee machine. He might just have given her an idea.

* * *

The next morning Robin walked into the building like usual, a cup of _real_ coffee in her hand. The liquid that came out of the machine in their office could hardly be called coffee – you could even still see the bottom of the cup when it was completely filled – so she preferred to get one at the coffee shop at the corner of the street. The blond barista that worked there always gave her discount too, which was very nice of him.

Robin didn't have to meet up with any clients until the afternoon, so she had all morning to try to make something of her plan. If it didn't work out this first time, she would just have to try again.

She stepped into the elevator when it was already half full, and made sure she was standing next to the control panel. After her, a few more people got into the elevator, and when its doors were closing, one last man quickly jumped into the small cabin before it could leave without him. This, however unpleasant, worked in favor of Robin's plan, as he accidentally hit her elbow while jumping in. He didn't even hit her that hard, but Robin made sure some of her coffee spilled right over the control panel, and seeped into the little space between the buttons.

She send him a dark glare. "Could you watch what you're doing? You spilled coffee all over the panel. What if it broke down and we would be stuck here for days?"

The man frowned. "I'm sure it's not that bad."

He'd barely said that when the elevator came to a stop and it turned dark. The light of a few smartphones was the only thing that illuminated the small room, when the people around Robin slowly started to panic.

"Oh God, please help us," she heard someone behind her whisper.

Some woman next to her probably looked accusingly at Robin. "Did you really have to say that?" she asked, as if the mere fact that Robin stated the possibility of the elevator stopping had caused it to actually happen.

Robin smiled reassuringly at her. "It could be worse. At least we haven't fallen down yet, and the elevator didn't catch fire either – which could happen when it's short circuit."

"Just open the damn doors!" another man said to her, panic evident in his voice.

Robin pushed the button to open the elevator doors, but, as she expected – and secretly even hoped – nothing happened. "It doesn't work. I guess we'll really be stuck in here for days. I wonder how long it will take for someone to free us, or find us. We might have already starved to death by then. Or started eating each other to survive."

"Then we'll start with you!" the man who had asked her to open the doors, snarled at her.

"Or we could run out of air," Robin added. "I wonder how long we'll have before that happens."

The man began slamming his fists against the metal doors. "Hey! Can anybody hear me? Send help!"

Robin shook her head. "I reckon the more you panic or start yelling, the faster we run out of oxygen." She smiled. "But don't worry, I'll call the front desk."

She selected the number that would direct her to the front desk of the building directly, which she conveniently had saved in her phone just this morning. "Hello, this is Robin, from Leopard Lawyers, on the fifteenth floor," she said when the phone was answered. "We're having a bit of a situation here. You see, the elevator stopped working completely. It doesn't move, doesn't open, and there is little light and air. Could you maybe call a mechanic?" Robin couldn't help but smile. "That man from yesterday did some excellent work, maybe you could call him again?"

"The guy from Tom's Workers? Yeah, we'll call them immediately, a moment please," the man said, but before he switched lines, he told her, "Try not to panic. Help will be there sooner than you think."

Robin smiled. "That's what I'm trying to tell them."

It was silent for a little while, on the other side of the phone connection, as well as inside the elevator, as if everyone was trying to listen what was discussed. After about a minute, the man at the front desk talked to her again. "They're on their way. It would take them about ten minutes to get here, they said."

"Okay, thank you." Robin hung up and faced the group that was waiting for her bring over the message to them.

"They're on their way," she said, and she heard a few relieved sighs. "But it might take a while," she added, just to tease them some more. Besides, Robin was sure those ten minutes would seem like a long while to some of them.

* * *

Those ten minutes did indeed feel like an hour, but finally Robin got a call from the front desk that the mechanics had arrived. Not much later, they heard some mumbling just near the elevator door, as if someone was discussing something, though the exact words couldn't be understood inside the elevator. After a short while, the light was turned on again, and slowly the elevator started to move again.

It made the last bit of its way to the third floor, where the doors opened. Everyone hurried outside, desperate for fresh air and not wanting to stay inside that prison for a moment longer than necessary. Only Robin waited until everyone else was out, before leaving herself.

She smiled at the blue haired mechanic who had been waiting for them. "So we meet again," she said, hoping he would remember her.

He nodded. "Isn't that a super coincidence?"

Robin chuckled. "Perhaps."

"Ah, you managed to get everyone out, Franky?" Another man – also blue haired, though a shade darker – asked the mechanic as he walked towards them.

Robin kept smiling, even though she was a little disappointed the two of them weren't alone anymore. But at least she knew the mechanic's name now. Franky, it would seem.

"Of course," Franky answered. "I was a little surprised you could find the emergency button so soon though, Baka-berg."

"Tsk, it's a miracle you didn't make the situation worse yet, Bakanky." The man – who had to be at least thirty-five – stuck out his tongue.

Franky rolled his eyes and turned towards Robin again. "So, eh, what happened?"

Robin was amused by how two grownups could act like six year olds while in the middle of a posh building. Definitely not like the men she was used to. "Someone spilled coffee all over the control panel, Franky," she said, just to try out the name for herself. She wondered if that was the reason for the slight blush on the mechanic's cheeks. "It's Franky, right?"

"Ah, yes," he said, after which he stayed silent for a short while. But then he spoke again. "Well, that is super inconvenient. The coffee, I mean. But I'll fix it." He stepped into the elevator, and immediately started to unscrew the panel.

Robin kept standing there, looking at Franky, because she wouldn't let this second meeting go to waste. She noticed the other blue haired man was looking at them, a smirk growing on his face, but she chose to ignore him.

Franky looked up and noticed Robin was still standing there. He smiled at her. "Do you need anything else,… miss…"

The other mechanic snorted and shook his head, but didn't make any attempt to leave the two alone.

"You can call me Robin," she answered, and got a business card from her purse. "And yes." She stuck the card behind his golden chain necklace. "I need you to call me, if you want to go out for a coffee or anything." Robin winked at him, and then walked away, leaving a surprised Franky and his laughing mechanic friend behind.

* * *

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